


The Last of Summer

by Luthien



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, regency au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-28
Updated: 2009-04-28
Packaged: 2017-10-14 19:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luthien/pseuds/Luthien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An episode from a longer, unfinished Regency AU in which Rodney is a wealthy aristocrat inventor and John is a cavalry officer. Intentionally Heyer-esque in style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last of Summer

It was long years since he'd kissed anyone at all, and McKay's kiss was as unlike the last he had experienced as the warm, golden afternoons of midsummer differed from a cool, fresh autumn morning: both had certain qualities that must recommend them, and yet one was still vastly to be preferred above the other.

McKay drew back a little and looked deep in his eyes. John was glad of the dim light.

"So why did you join the army, anyway?"

John furrowed his brow. "Do you usually go in for _non sequiturs_ at times like this?" he enquired.

"It isn't a _non sequitur_ ," said McKay. "At least, it wouldn't be if you were to accurately follow my train of thought."

"Something that I find myself singularly unable to achieve without Divine intervention," John pointed out drily. "Unless, perhaps, you have devised the mathematical formula that would enable a mere mortal to perform the trick of divining the contents of another's mind?"

"Unamusing," McKay said flatly. "Divination's complete fustian, in any case. A man of your superior understanding should have no difficulty determining _that_ much."

John raised his eyebrows and awarded him a very particular sort of look. Only McKay could dress up so rare a compliment in words that sounded closer to an insult.

McKay sighed as though tried beyond all patience. "I meant, in simple terms, that it should be possible for any reasonably intelligent person who is at all acquainted with my mode of thinking to consider the available evidence, apply the power of deductive reasoning and thus determine how-"

"How you managed to progress from participating in a kiss with apparent enthusiasm to asking me why I joined the army, in a matter of seconds?"

"Almost correct," said McKay.

"Which part did I get wrong?" John said, not sure whether or not it was yet the appropriate time for him to furrow his eyebrows again.

"The word 'apparent'." McKay smiled, and suddenly it seemed the easiest thing in the world to kiss him again.

Yes, there was definitely all the warmth of summer contained in that kiss.

It was longer before they drew apart this time, and, when they did so, they did not move far from each other. John's hand continued to stroke the side of McKay's face gently afterwards, his fingers brushing against the stiff points of McKay's shirt-collar and sliding down into the disordered folds of his neckcloth before drifting upwards again. There was an odd comfort to be found in the action, and in feeling something as prosaic as the slight scratch of bleached linen beneath his hands whilst in the midst of a situation that should have been unthinkable. John had an uneasy feeling that all of it would prove to be as insubstantial as a phantom the instant he let McKay stray out of his reach, and yet, at the same time, it was hard to imagine anyone or anything more tangible than McKay.

McKay's hands had remained on John's shoulders all the while, ready to pull him close again, and John didn't protest when finally he did just that. McKay had pressed a hard, fervent kiss below John's ear, and had progressed to scattering light kisses along his jaw, moving purposefully towards his mouth, by the time John cleared his throat and spoke again: "So, why did you ask that?"

"Ask what?" McKay said, breath whispering against John's face.

"Why I bought a pair of colours."

"That's not-" He broke off. "It doesn't matter," he amended, and leaned in to kiss John properly.

And, right at that moment, with McKay pressed up hard against his body so that John could think of little else, it really didn't seem to matter in the least.


End file.
